Effort
by NeverlandAwaits
Summary: It's Yahiro's birthday, but Megumi doesn't feel much like celebrating. {Megumi/Yahiro}


"Guys!"

The members of the S.A. heard the shout before the young pink haired girl that possessed it. They all knew that when Sakura came to the greenhouse screaming something other than "Jun!" she wanted them to do something for her. She ran to where they were all seated and leaned on the back of Jun's chair.

"I assume there's a reason you're here, Sakura?" drawled Kei, not looking up from his laptop.

Sakura nodded. "To see Jun, of course!" After she successfully made her boyfriend blush, she continued, "I'm also here on a matter of utmost importance - Yahiro's birthday!"

Akira handed Sakura some tea and said, "Yeah, I remember now. It's the seventh, right?"

"That's right!" Sakura exclaimed, then took a sip of her tea. "I want to throw a huge surprise party for him!" When Hikari started standing up with a bright smile on her face, she quickly added, "An elegant ball, not something like a festival."

Hikari's smile dropped slightly, but it was still pretty big. "Well, I'm in!"

"If Hikari's in, so am I," Kei said, earning a glare from Akira.

"If he's going with Hikari, then I'm going to be there right with them!" she said, almost choking Hikari with a hug.

Tadashi, Ryuu, and Jun both knew that the three of them had no choice if those three and Sakura were going to be involved. "I'll bring Finn as well," said Ryuu.

Sakura grinned as she received confirmation. "Awesome!" She turned to Megumi. "What about you, Megumi?"

Megumi smiled and wrote on her sketch toy,_ 'Of course.'_ However, she didn't really feel like partying.

It was no secret between her and Yahiro that she had feelings for the boy, despite his constant rejections and the way he would play games with her. He made her nervous in more ways than one and she both loved and hated it. Even though she had been rejected before, she never gave up hope and tried to speak to him whenever the opportunity presented itself. She knew it would probably be a good idea to help out, even if it was just to speak to him for two seconds, and that was the only reason she agreed.

Though, she was sure that it would be the same as always. She would feel ignored so she would use her voice, he would tell her to stop, then proceed to tease her like he normally would.

Breaking out of her thoughts to listen to the conversation, she was just in time to hear Sakura ask, "What do you guys think should happen?"

Hikari, who was always full of ideas, said, "Well, it needs to be something magnificent. Every time I go to the events you guys hold I feel this sense of elite maturity, you know? It can't just be that. It's a birthday, so it needs to be fun."

Sakura looked thoughtful, but not disheartened. "That's a point. Yahiro likes his fun, no matter how twisted it can be."

"No Yahiro fun," Kei said, throwing his arm around Hikari's shoulder protectively. Megumi wasn't completely sure what had happened when the two of them had attended Yahiro's party a while back, but she knew it had led to the whole vacation issue.

"Yahiro likes his parties fancy, so we have to keep that going somehow. Anyone know a place with a big ballroom area?" Ryuu asked, looking around.

Jun and Megumi looked at each other and smiled. "We know somewhere," said Jun.

The rest of the planning started from there.

* * *

On the seventh of July, Sakura, Finn, and the members of the S.A. were in the middle of chaos. They had decided, upon Jun and Megumi's suggestion, that they use the twins' villa near the coast, which their parents had hired mostly for their musical soirees. There were many rooms around that were for daily living, but there was also a ballroom with a stage and balcony areas both outside and inside. Megumi and Jun had directed the others on each area and what it was used for so they could be used to their full potential.

While most of the preparation was done by the Yamamoto maids and butlers, Megumi had done a lot of it herself. She wanted to put her own personal touch onto Yahiro's party, and while it made her exhausted, she was satisfied with her efforts. After the preparation was complete, she turned her focus to the biggest problem.

Her singing.

She had told the others that she would sing at the party, and while they were initially concerned, she had assured them that it would all be okay. They believed her due to her having lessons with her music producer and making more of an effort to actually decrease her volume, but she knew she had a long way to go, especially in a large hall that echoed, even with background noise. She had already requested that she didn't have a microphone, but she didn't know whether it would be enough.

While the others were busy directing the servants, Megumi spent her time practicing in her temporary room. She only had an hour or so before Akira and Sakura would burst into her room and dressed her up like a doll. Normally she wouldn't mind, but she wanted as much practice time as possible.

Sure enough, within the hour, the two girls and even Hikari (though she looked a little lost) rushed into her room, picked up the dress she had chosen, and made sure she "looked absolutely stunning" in their standards. They did her hair and her make-up until she didn't even recognise herself in her mirror. There was only a gorgeous girl staring back at her, blinking her eyes in surprise.

The party was scheduled to start at eight o'clock sharp, and Tadashi and Ryuu had been forced by Sakura to promise they would bring Yahiro then. When they gave the signal (a text to Jun), she would put a single spotlight on the stage where Megumi would be standing. She would sing a song to Yahiro, and when she was done the party would get underway.

At five to eight, Megumi rushed up to the stage and stood on the 'X' she had marked with sticky tape earlier. She couldn't hear the other guests, but she knew they were there, ready and waiting. She could feel her nerves spin in her stomach, and while part of her wanted to run off the stage and hide in her room, she made sure she had the willpower to stay on the stage and sing. If not for her own sake, then for Yahiro's.

She had just finished doing some small vocal exercises when her eyes were blinded by the light of the contraption hovering above her. She closed her eyes and began to sing, happy that she didn't make anything explode. With that worry over, she focused on how she sang. The words she knew, but her volume could often falter where it wasn't supposed to, and she wanted this to be perfect. This wasn't as if she was with her record producer where they could re-record over and over again. Even so, she didn't have to worry, as she hit every note at the volume she wanted.

The best part was her big finish, which grew louder and louder by the second until she went really quiet for her last note. When the music was finished, she opened her eyes and smiled as the main lights came on and she saw the people in the crowd, clapping in cheering. She bowed and walked offstage as quickly as she could to make way for the orchestra to come onstage.

At first, she sat at the side of the room on her own. All of her friends were dancing with each other, and she would be lying if she said she didn't feel a little left out. After a little time, though, she was asked to dance by a number of boys around her age. She eagerly accepted, wanting to at least have a little time to dance. Throughout it all, however, she was still thinking about Yahiro and where he could be. What was he thinking? Did he like the party? Did he hate her singing? What if he was looking for her right now? She scratched out that last thought. He was probably with Akira.

After half an hour or so, she was dancing with one of the random boys when she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around to see the one that she couldn't seem to get out of her head - Yahiro. Her eyes widened as he addressed her dance partner. "May I cut in?"

The boy bowed out of the way and disappeared into the crowd. Megumi stared at Yahiro for a few seconds before he moved her arms into a dancing position. The two of them started to dance with him in the lead, as she was still too shocked to even think about trying to lead him through the crowd. The music wasn't too fast or too slow, so they were moving around at a steady pace. Megumi didn't dare speak, not only because he would tell her to stop, but also because she didn't know what to say.

"Where's your sketch pad, Megumi?" he asked, almost stepping on the blue trimming of her dress.

She pursed her lips, then said softly, "On the table where Ryuu and Finn are sitting."

"Don't speak," he ordered, and she frowned. She hadn't expected anything else, but it still hurt.

"How else am I going to communicate?" she questioned. "Besides, my producer told me that a little bit of talking is actually good."

There was a pause, then, "I still don't like it, so don't speak. That's my birthday wish."

Even if it hadn't been a birthday request, she would have stayed quiet. She was still a little paranoid about speaking for too long without stopping, and she was afraid that she would get carried away with Yahiro. The two finished their dance in silence, and afterwards Megumi went to the table for her and her friends and grabbed her sketch toy. Yahiro led her to one of the balconies overlooking the large garden out the back.

"That was a beautiful song you sang, by the way," Yahiro said, and she blushed.

_'Thank you,'_ she wrote. _'I wrote it myself, actually.'_

Yahiro didn't look surprised. "Really? Were you testing it on me to see how an audience would react before you went to your producer?"

Megumi shook her head._ 'I wrote it for this occasion.'_

This time he did look surprised. "Are you going to record it for your first album? Or was it just for now."

_'I honestly haven't thought about it. I was concentrating more on today.'_ It was true. She hadn't planned to send it to her producer for approval, but she thought it would be a good idea. It was a special song to her, and that was what she wanted her first album to be about.

"I think you should. It's good," Yahiro said, staring at the stars. "Though, I'm surprised you didn't blow up this villa. Whose is this again?"

She gave an exasperated breath. He always had to ruin the moment. _'It belongs to my parents. They let us use it for this weekend.'_

"Oh, so they knew the risk." She frowned and he chuckled. "Nah, I had faith in you."

Hearing those words, as simple as they may have been, made her smile widely. He looked down at her and smiled upon seeing her reaction. She knew that she was an important person to him, evidenced by him giving her the stone a while ago, but she knew that she would never wiggle her way into his heart like he had hers. It made her sad, and he must have seen it in her expression, as he said, "What's wrong, Megumi? Sad on the anniversary of your beloved's birth?"

She didn't write what she wanted to say down, instead blurting out, "It's not fair, Yahiro. You know that I love you. I even told you directly. I understand that you rejected me, but you keep being nice to me and spending time with me regardless. It just makes me fall for you more."

She heard Yahiro sigh, but she didn't want to look at him, nor did she want him to see her light pink cheeks. It was only when she heard him say, "I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself," that she stared him in the face.

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

Yahiro scowled. "Don't talk, and what I mean is, well, I knew I was falling in love with you, but I didn't want you to get hurt like I've done to so many others. When you confessed to me, I was shocked, as you saw, but the time we spent away from each other between then and the day you sung for your mother's producer I made a decision to reject you so you could forget about me. I guess it didn't work."

Not listening to his demand, she continued to speak. "No, it didn't. Neither did the dancing and the complimenting, just for your information."

Yahiro sighed once more and said, "Well, I guess I've given up on ever stopping myself from falling in love with you. It's happened now, and I can't take it back."

"So what does this mean now?" Megumi inquired, looking at the sky. Fireworks began to pop in the air, as she knew they would. Tadashi was in charge of those, and she was sure him and Akira were enjoying setting them off down there right now.

She gazed at the sky as it was lit up with different colours. She was so absorbed that she didn't notice Yahiro put his face closer to hers. She only noticed something was happening when it hit her smack-bang on the mouth - literally. He was kissing her, something she had only ever dreamed of. She had never believed that it would actually happen, yet it was! It almost felt like a miracle, but thanks to the hope she had enforced, it wasn't so. She had known deep down that he was in love with her. Maybe it only took her song and a lovely night to make her realize that.

When the two parted, she smiled at him and he at her. They focused their attention on the fireworks, intertwining hands as they did so.

Sometimes effort really did go a long way.

* * *

_I really hope I didn't destroy their characters. Reviews would be lovely, and I hope you liked it!_


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